Farmers fear EU directive will lead to water charges

Farmers’ leaders say the water directive is not relevant to Ireland which has no shortage of rainGETTY IMAGES

Farmers have expressed alarm at government plans to introduce a law requiring them to register the water they take from their own land.

Ireland is obliged to follow the EU’s water framework directive, which requires member states to have a system to control the abstraction of water but the Irish Farmers’ Association is concerned that it will lead to charges.

At present, laws regulating groundwater abstraction, which date back to 1942, are not sufficiently comprehensive to address the directive.

The European Commission has now begun infringement proceedings against the government for its failure to introduce a new regime and will escalate the process if action is not taken.

Eoghan Murphy, the housing and local government minister, said his department had begun work on legislation that…